Editing Emma (novel) (section)

===Gender reversal===
[[File:Emma&P&P2.tif|thumb|Diagram of gender reversals in ''Emma'' and ''Pride and Prejudice'']]
There are numerous parallels between the main characters and plots of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' and ''Emma'': Both novels feature a proud central character, respectively, Darcy and Emma; a critical future spouse, Elizabeth and Mr Knightley; an easily swayed friend, Bingley and Harriet; an almost-thwarted marital ambition, Jane and Martin; a dependent relative, Georgiana and Mr Woodhouse; and a potential object of matrimony who is a wrong choice for the central character, Anne de Bourgh and Frank Churchill.<ref name="Overmann2009">{{cite journal |last=Overmann |first=Karenleigh A |date=2009 |title=Darcy and Emma: Jane Austen's ironic meditation on gender |url=http://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions/no31/darcy-and-emma-austens-ironic-meditation-on-gender/|journal=Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal |volume=31 |pages=222–235 |access-date=26 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Overmann |first=Karenleigh A |title=Gendered reflections in two Austen novels |publisher=Unpublished |date=2017 |url=https://osf.io/ewz4c/ |access-date=November 2, 2021}}</ref> These pairs suggest that ''Emma'' may have been a gendered reversal of the earlier novel.<ref name="Overmann2009"/> Such reversals were familiar to Austen through the works of favoured authors like [[Samuel Richardson]], [[Henry Fielding]], and [[William Shakespeare]].<ref name="Overmann2009"/>

Austen is thought to have switched gender in some of her earlier work as well. Her cousin Eliza Hancock may have been her inspiration for the character Edward Stanley in "Catharine, or the Bower," one of her youthful pieces, showing her the "trick of changing the gender of her prototype."<ref name="Spence2003">{{cite book |last=Spence |first=Jon |date=2003 |title=Becoming Jane Austen: A life |location=London |publisher= Hambledon & London |pages=100–107 |isbn=1852855614}}</ref>{{rp|102}} In ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Thomas Lefroy, a charming and witty Irishman, may have been the basis for Elizabeth's personality, while Austen may have used herself as the model for Darcy's reserve and self-consciousness when among company, but open and loving demeanor when among close friends and family.<ref name="Spence2003"/> Austen's selection of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' as the basis for reversing gender in ''Emma'' may have been motivated by these earlier experiences and insights.<ref>{{Citation |last=Overmann |first=Karenleigh A |title=''Pride and Prejudice'' and the persistent popularity of Jane Austen |publisher=Unpublished |date=2017 |url= https://osf.io/m2ry3/ |access-date=November 2, 2021}}</ref>

Reversing the genders of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' in ''Emma'' allowed Austen to disturb paradigms and examine the different expectations society had of men and women; the elements she chose to include in ''Emma'' and how she chose to revise them yield a powerful but ultimately conventional commentary on the status of women.<ref name="Overmann2009"/> The novel's central concern with gender is often noted in the literature as themes like gendered space, romance, female empowerment, wealth, parenting, and masculinity.